Food, glorious(?), food

Getting ready for the onslaught

Almost three weeks since my last posting. Gee, doesn't time fly? It's not that I've been lazy (although that's a subject in which I could win an Olympic Gold), it's that our time has been amazingly well utilized.

A more than usual proportion of our energy seems to have been spent on food, either eating out or entertaining. That, inevitably resulted in me gaining a few extra pounds, "oh dear, how sad, never mind" (no prizes for guessing what TV show that quote comes from). We had eaten out so much that Gail needed an orientation course just to get back into the swing of preparing meals in our own kitchen!

The eating marathon concluded on Saturday when we held a cook-out for friends and neighbors. It seemed, from my vantage point slaving over a hot grill, to have been a success by the 39 guests who attended. I thought I would never stop grilling ribs, dogs and burgers and swore that I wouldn't want to see another rib for months. Needless to say, by Monday, I could have died for a rib!

I mentioned above a favorite TV sitcom (It Ain't Half Hot Mum), which is now considered not politically correct, but really is a classic. I have just been informed by Amazon that my order or the complete series of another of my favorites, (thanks to my amazing friends Dawn and Michelle sweetly remembering my birthday) has been shipped. I had pre-ordered it six weeks ago and have eagerly awaited it's release on Region 1. It is "Open All Hours", starring the exceedingly talented Ronnie Barker and David Jason, and is an English classic. I don't think PBN would have shown this here, as I'm not sure that an American audience would be able to grasp the Northern humor (the series was set in Doncaster, Gail's home town).

A friend recently lent us the BBC adaptation of Barchester Chronicles. Some of my favorite actors starred, Donald Pleasance, Nigel Hawthorne, Geraldine McEwan and the wonderful Alan Rickman, who played the creepy Obadiah Slope and the equally wonderful Clive Swift playing Bishop Proudie. What a great adaption of Trollope's masterpeice and just like the books, we didn't want it to end. Thank you Lynn for sharing.

Okay, I think that's enough of the TV theme. Now, what was I going to do? Oh yes, get ready to out for the Ninth Street Neighbors Lunch with some of our friends. And that's where we came in.

A Sad Loss

Yesterday, we mourned the loss of a dear friend. I refer to an 80ft hickory tree in our yard. Sadly it had died last Fall and although we put off having it felled, it was too near our house to risk leaving nature to do the work for us.

You may wonder why I call a tree a friend? Let me tell you that my native Norfolk, England, has witnessed the disappearance of trees at an alarming rate over the past half century. Few homes, even in the countryside, have the abundance of trees that we are fortunate enough to enjoy here in North Carolina. Modern farming methods dictated the removal of many small woods and copses and just as importantly, hedgerows. This had a devastating effect on wildlife and it is only comparatively recently that the importance of this is being widely recognized. The mighty storms of 1987 contributed to the loss with thousands of established specimens felled by nature's wrath in 24 hours. Add to this the scourge of Dutch Elm disease and a huge percentage of natural woodland was effected.

Our time in near treeless southern Spain made us realize how much we missed trees. So on our first visits to North Carolina we were enthralled at the amount of woodland. My cousin, on her first visit here from England, commented on arrival at RDU that she was amazed at the greenery and trees she saw from the windows of her aircraft on it's approach.

We still have a large number of trees in the yard and I have negotiated with our friendly tree doctor for some of those to receive "surgery" in the Fall to help manage and preserve them.

Our dear old hickory - probably ninety years in the making - was felled and cleared in less than ninety minutes. Yes, I love trees!

TW3 (That Was The Week That Was)

I haven't posted for some time. I sometimes wake up in the early hours and whilst laying in semi-consciousness I think of excellent topics on which to post. Of course, by the time I get up, have been for our daily pre-breakfast walk, had said breakfast, done chores (okay, the latter doesn't take that long) and switched on the lap-top I've forgotten all the ideas I had for writing.

It was my birthday on Wednesday, a monumental one for me, reaching the age of 65, the normal retiring age in England. I retired from a very stressful job nine years early, following a minor, but nevertheless frightening, heart attack. A sign to ease off on the stress. Praise the Lord I took it seriously and did just that. I still have days (fortunately very few) when my body tells me all is not well. I know the signs and react by "shutting down". This happened on the day before my birthday. I had planned so much for the day, a pot-luck lunch with Ninth Street Neighbors, a one-to-one meeting with our vicar, bible-study in the evening, but after stubbornly going grocery shopping I knew I had to cancel these events and "shut-down". As usual, it worked and by the anniversary of my birth I was all but back to normal.

It wasn't exactly an exciting day, but I did manage some long telephone conversations with family and friends in England, catching up with the latest news from there and Spain (two friends had just returned from seven weeks there).

My former local soccer (football) team, Norwich City, has just been relegated to the third tier of English League Football, the minor league club I supported and helped run for quite a few years, Great Yarmouth Town, just missed out on promotion, whilst the team I follow in Spain, Málaga CF, look as though they will miss out on a UEFA place. Still the soccer season is underway here and I look forward to attending some Carolina RailHawks home games.

And, after some tornado warnings earlier in the week we at last seem to have some signs of summer - just 90F (32C) today so room for higher temperatures yet, hence the pre-breakfast walks and mowing the grass before noon!

Just where the week went to? I have no idea.

I like it . . . or do I?

Cyberspace seems full of "My Top Five" lists. I refer mainly to those on Facebook. I quite frequently complete them, the most recent being "movies" "TV shows", "beer", etc. It all seems harmless enough and quite a fun thing to waste five or ten minutes on, deciding your favorite (if you didn't already know).

I'm not altogether sure whether I like FB or not. I do enjoy regaining contact with former school chums (that's a good old English phrase), former work colleagues or neighbors, but even though I comment on what I'm doing, just have done or about to do, does anyone really care? Possibly not, but I do think they are interested. Before the likes of FB, MySpace and blogging, many were I suspect, like me when opening a newspaper or magazine, interested in the opinions of other readers and enjoyed the "Letters to the Editor" page.

Whilst I love finding out what my FB friends are doing, I wonder why we don't disclose these thoughts more in person. I frequently email my daughter, who unfortunately lives 4000 miles away, and follow her "exploits" on FB, but there's nothing like chatting to her on the phone, even if much of the chat is of everyday things. Of course, it would be better still to chat to her face to face and give her a real hug rather than a virtual one.

Shortly after starting this blog, my son mentioned that he learned a lot about my earlier life from reading some of my postings - and he lives not 4,000 miles away, but only ten minutes! I wonder how much more I would have learned of my father's earlier life if blogs and FB were available when he was alive.

A personal journal? A lot of blogs are. Whether we agree with the views of members of FB and other social networking sites, forums or blogs, the fact that we take an interest in them must contribute to our realization that (a) we are not alone in our views or (b) not everyone thinks the same way as us. Respecting that is the key to a world of more understanding.

Those who have known me for many years would jump to agree that tolerance has never been my strong point. Tolerance is something I am working on and recognize as being one of the most important aspects of a happy life. Facebook and the like can, I hope, help achieve this.

Oh, and my favorite beers? In no particular order . . . .

Adnams Broadside
Yuengling Premium
Stella Artois
Woodforde's Wherry
Sam Adam's Summer Ale

Sadly Broadside (draught) and Wherry are unavailable here in NC . . . unless you know different!

Crafty business

Yesterday, after our regular visit to the public library, Gail and I visited one of her favorite craft stores, A.C. Moore. I have to admit that even though I always leave there with a lighter wallet, I do enjoy browsing this great store. I enjoy even more watching Gail's face as she discovers another skein of yarn, a new color of DLC floss, or a new design of scrap booking paper. Talk about a child in a toy store.

We decided to go there just to buy a frame and mat to mount her latest cross-stitch project, a souvenir from last year's visit to Williamsburg, VA. Of course, we didn't get away with just these two items. I should have realized that as she picked up a cart at the entrance! A beautiful artificial flower display, another scented candle and two more Beanie Baby bears to add to her collection soon joined the frame in the cart!


Her dedication to her crafts is a blessing. One evening, not long after we arrived here, we were relaxing in front of the TV. I was very conscious that there was something wrong. It took a few minutes to sink in and then I realized what it was - Gail wasn't knitting! "What's the matter, don't you feel well?" "I haven't any wool left", she replied (we still called yarn wool back then). Of course, we had to remedy that situation the following morning and now she always has an enormous stock of yarn available.

Her prayer shawls have brought comfort to so many people - some we know, many she has never met. However, although knitting countless shawls, it wasn't until she was sick a month back that our dear friend Courtney (who had been a recipient of a shawl) asked me how Gail was feeling. I replied that she was still poorly, getting better, but still wasn't knitting (which was a worry to me) and we both suddenly realized that Gail had no prayer shawl of her own. Courtney had soon bought Gail some yarn, the shawl was knitted within a few days and was blessed by our vicar at church on Easter Sunday. A very moving and touching moment for Gail, Courtney and me. Afterwards, at fellowship hour, she received requests for another three shawls!

Food, glorious food

Okay, it's Holy Week at last, so my fasting of chocolate, candy and desserts is nearly at an end. I think that I've done okay, as well as finding out who my true friends are (I still love you Lyn)! Part of being tempted by anything is thinking about it and this has given me cause to think of food I miss, food I like and food I dislike.

What food do I miss from England? Not as much as I would have first thought but here is a list:
Meat pies (they are not readily obtainable here, the Americans think of a pie as being mainly dessert), especially Cornish Pasties (the genuine article, not the normal supermarket imitations), pork pies (Melton Mowbray of course), and steak and kidney pies - Mmmmm! On the sweeter side I also miss Battenberg cake (although a friend did bring me some on her return from a visit to London, thanks Hannah). Jacobs custard creams - now there's a real biscuit (not a cookie). McVites digestives you can get here, at a horrendous price though and good old Bird's Custard powder is available too. Cadbury's chocolate is missed terribly. Again, I'm talking about the real stuff, not the poor imitation made under license by Hershey's. Finally, I never thought I would say this, but I do miss the occasional British Banger. I do enjoy American sausage, but wouldn't mind savoring a tasty Cumberland sausage.

What American food do I like? Nearly all Southern foods for sure. Most of it isn't good for me I know, but all things in moderation. I love grits, fried chicken, okra, clam chowder, chicken dumplings and barbecue (the dish, not the grille). I enjoy waffles and/or pancakes for breakfast, biscuits and gravy, glazed donuts and horror of horrors to the average English, iced tea. The latter took some getting used to believe me.

And what don't I like? Hardly anything really, in fact probably the same foods I didn't like in Europe. The one which springs to mind (and I still won't eat) are Brussels sprouts - Ugh?

Can I hear lunch being prepared? Oh yes, I've worked up quite an appetite writing this.

It's a Matter of Time

A discussion with an American friend regarding our experiences since living here turned to time. No, not the time difference between here and Europe which is not a problem for us, but the different attitude to time.

Let me explain. In England (and please bear in mind, it is nearly nine years since we lived there), the day certainly runs later than here. For example, most non-clerical jobs would have an 8am to 4pm (or 5pm depending on lunch breaks) day, whilst clerical/office jobs would run from 9am to 5 or 5.30pm.

In Spain (in Andalusia at least) they were and presumably still enjoying the siesta with most stores and offices closing between 2 and 5pm and then reopening until 7 or 8pm.

Here the working day for most starts earlier and finishes earlier. I was amazed that in our experience an appointment at the doctor's office can be had at 7am, but usually not after 3pm or at the latest 4pm. In Spain our wonderful doctor took a siesta (good for him) and in England there was almost always an evening surgery.

School hours for kids are very different too, with school buses picking up on our street as early as 6.30am with them returning by 2.30pm in some cases. In addition, "year-round" schools are becoming more popular here in the triangle, although the reason for this is, I think, to utilize school buildings more efficiently.

Perhaps the best example of the changes we made is evening meal time. In England we usually sat down to eat at 7pm, in Spain 9pm, whilst here the norm seems to be 5.30-6pm, although we more often than not sit down at 6.30pm depending on whether we are attending evening events.